172. WHAT DO WE HAVE TO SHOW FOR OUR FOLLY?

(The Faith Forum Series – Batch 3)

After we have sinned, what do we have to show for our moments of pleasure? What does sin leave in its wake but heartbreak, pain, awkwardness, tension, shame, humiliation, bitterness, conflict, lost time, lost opportunities and destruction?

What do we have to show from our moments of folly, even after we have confessed, repented and forsaken our sin and was it worth it?

Alas, we have learned the hard way that it is not and that sin, though it seems pleasurable for a short moment, leaves nothing in its path but a lifetime of destruction.

We would do well to bow at the feet of the Master and acknowledge where we have gone our own way and failed miserably, that God’s ways, his rules, his methods and his timing have always been and will always be the best.

We would do well to admit to him, that we were wrong and he was right and ask him to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness.

Romans 6:19-23 states:

“…for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

1 John 1:7-10 also states:

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

(Written in 2018 or earlier)

ADDENDUM

In the wee hours of the morning of 24th May, 2021, the thought came to me and so I wrote:

There is a GREAT DISPARITY between (1) what you set out to build for yourself with great aspirations (without God), (2) what you actually build after tireless effort and (3) what God intended and may still want for you.

You set out intending to build a nice little COTTAGE but ended up with a SHACK. When you finally admit it, declare yourself incompetent to build anything worthwhile for yourself, let go of your tools and let God have HIS way, as master builder, HE steps in. He surveys the damage, breaks down what you did, gets rid of the useless rubble and begins again.

When you see the final product, you are dumbstruck. He didn’t build you what you expected. He far exceeded all that you could have asked or dreamed. He took his time, he used quality material and he built you a PALACE.

About six hours later, I additionally wrote:

“Except the Lord BUILD the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

Hebrews 11:10 also states of Abraham, a man that believed God and put his faith in his ability to construct what He wanted out of his life: “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose BUILDER and maker is God.”

Whatever we try to build in this life without God, without his approval and not in accordance with His divine dimensions, will come to nought, even as the tower of Babel did. For, only that which God builds WILL STAND.

In Genesis 11:1-9, it states of mankind, early in its history, when they sought to build something great without God’s approval:

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let US make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let US build US a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let US make US a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

AND THE LORD CAME DOWN TO SEE THE CITY AND THE TOWER, WHICH THE CHILDREN OF MEN BUILDED. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: AND THEY LEFT OFF TO BUILD THE CITY. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

In Ezekiel 13:10-15, God promised to do a similar thing. He told Ezekiel the Prophet to tell the false prophets who were encouraging the Israelites to pursue after their lies and to build without God, which is like building with poor quality material like untempered (soft) mortar:

“…and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with UNTEMPERED MORTAR: Say unto them which daub it with UNTEMPERED MORTAR, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.

Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it.

SO WILL I BREAK DOWN THE WALL THAT YE HAVE DAUBED WITH UNTEMPERED MORTAR, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with UNTEMPERED MORTAR, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it”

(Addendum written on 24th May, 2021)

Dear Reader, if you found the above Article to be interesting, informative, convicting, beneficial or edifying, you may also be interested in reading the following under ‘BIBLE-BELIEVING Daughters: